(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to so-called animal litter devices and more particularly to a litter receiver in which the elimination products of cats and similar animals may be deposited, and more particularly still, to an apparatus that will facilitate the handling of both of new litter materials and used litter materials relatively automatically with minimum human handling as well as a minimum dusting and dirt generation.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Domestic animals such as dogs and cats are kept as pets by many persons, not only because they are companionable and intriguing as well as useful in various capacities such as watchdogs and vermin catchers, but also because to a large extent, unlike many animals, they can be conveniently house trained, i.e. trained not to mess or litter the homes of their owners. Dogs, for example, like humans, and notably unlike, for example, monkeys and many other animals, will under natural conditions, if possible, go beyond their den or home area to defecate, preferring to go to surrounding territories or yards rather than eliminating in their owner's yards or homes. This proclivity not to dirty their home territory makes dogs fairly easily toilet trainable and together with their proclivity to bond with humans makes them widely acceptable as house pets.
Cats, on the other hand, have a natural instinct to bury or cover their elimination products in order to reduce odors that might otherwise alert their natural prey to the cat's immediate presence as well as to the presence of the cat's home territory. This tendency of the cat family, including the normal domesticated cat, makes cats also relatively easily elimination trainable and the cat's proclivity to bury its elimination products can be taken advantage of by providing within the home, easily movable unconsolidated materials such as sand in a sandbox or the like for the cat to eliminate in so such cat will have a minimum tendency to go elsewhere. Alternatively, no indoor materials suitable for digging in or for burial of elimination products may be provided within the home so that the cat evidences a natural tendency to seek to go outside to locate suitable digging areas for burial of its waste.
Under modern conditions, it has become more and more inconvenient and, in many cases, dangerous for pet cats to venture from their owner's homes and so-called litter boxes have been introduced in which the cat can dig a hole and then cover over its own leavings in such hole. An entire industry has emerged to supply so-called "litter" materials or suitable clean, odorless unconsolidated digging materials which can be used in litter boxes. For this purpose, builder's sand was the original choice, but this has been largely now superseded by dried clay pellets, treated saw dust and/or wood chips and the like. More recently, considerable effort has been expended in developing so-called self-clumping cat litters which tend to surround or clump about elimination products in the dry cat litter allowing such products to be removed from a cat litter pan or the like by removing the relatively sanitary clumps from the litter, allowing the litter material to be used longer.
Such digging or "litter" materials have traditionally been placed or held in shallow pans, referred to as litter pans or litter boxes, in which the litter material is placed in loose piles in which the cat is invited, by the consistency of the material, to dig. After a certain amount of cat leavings are accumulated in such pans, buried or half buried as the case may be in the litter, the litter material is removed and disposed of, often by being deposited in either the owner's yard or in the trash.
In more recent years, it has become customary among many pet owners to place a plastic bag in the litter box before placing the litter or digging material therein. In this manner, the cat's droppings, in the form of both solid and liquid waste, is prevented from contacting the bottom of the box or container and soiling it and the cat mess may be removed in the plastic bag with the used litter or digging material and discarded as a unit. Frequently, the cat waste has tended to partially consolidate or clump the litter material about it and many pet owners have regularly removed such clumped separately prior to the entire load of litter becoming fouled. As indicated above, there has recently come into use a self-clumping cat litter which accentuates such natural clumping and enables litter to be used for much longer periods before discarding the bulk portion and refilling the litter receptacle. As indicated above, therefore, an entire industry has arisen to supply not only the so-called litter, but also litter pans for animal use as well as plastic bags for lining such pans or containers plus, in addition, the various dried bulk materials for placement in the bags, both to contain and absorb feline waste and to encourage cats to dig and eliminate in such plastic containers.
Various disposal and manipulative containers have been devised in an attempt to rationalize the collection of cat waste in the usual cat litter containers. Illustrative of the state of the art in this regard are the following recent U.S. patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,360 issued Sep. 17, 1985 to Q. D. Higgins et al. discloses a disposable animal litter box including a fluid-tight bottom and a cover for the box. After use, the box, which is preferably made from readily disposable materials, may be closed and the entire unit disposed of.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,827 issued Dec. 1, 1987 to J. Jaillet et al. discloses a home-type litter box intended to be lined with a plastic bag or the like which is secured to the inside of the container. The entire container may be pivoted together after use to dump the contents into a central pile allowing the litter to be enfolded in the bag and removed, leaving the litter container available for insertion of a clean replacement bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,563 issued Feb. 28, 1989 to R. L. Berry et al. discloses a disposable litter box which may be opened out and lined with a conventional plastic litter bag and, when ready for disposal, folded shut into a suitcase form for removal to disposal.
While prior patents such as the Higgins et al. disposable litter box have tried to decrease the handling of feline waste products and similar cardboard litter boxes have, more recently still, appeared on the market already filled and ready for use and can thereafter be folded up and disposed of in the trash certain problems remain and such arrangements have as yet not become overly popular. There is a need, consequently, for a better and more convenient system. In the applicant's prior application, the use of prefilled plastic litter containers was disclosed for use with the particular apparatus of the invention and the apparatus in use with the prefilled bags was claimed.
The applicant has now invented both an improved prefilled cat litter container or bag for use in his apparatus and otherwise and an improved apparatus for use with such bags as well as with more conventional litter bags.
While some of the prior art such as the patents referred to above have attempted to address the problem of conveniently folding up and disposing of used cat and other animal litter containers, the process of servicing animal litter boxes is still, at best, an inconvenient and sometimes messy operation which takes a surprising degree of manual dexterity, particularly in folding up the customary plastic litter liner and securing it without spilling the contents. Such operations may be particularly burdensome to elderly or partially disabled persons and is not a favored chore for anyone. There has been a need, therefore, for a more efficient and effective method and/or means for handling animal litter. Both elderly persons and others have, furthermore, found it both inconvenient and dirt engendering to place litter material in the litter bag within the litter pan or receptacle, which usually entails pouring the litter material from a large bag or reservoir of litter into the actual litter bag or receptacle in which it is to be used. This invariably raises or releases considerable dust or fine particulates which then pass into the air, becoming an irritant to both the airways of the person transferring the litter material and a household dirt source. Much of this dust can be eliminated by providing, as suggested in the applicant's previous application for patent, a prefilled bag adapted to be opened only after mounting upon a support apparatus or in the pan in which it is to be used. Additional steps can also be used to minimize dust or small particulate material passage into the surrounding atmosphere as explained hereinafter.